The Living Goddesses

by Marija Gimbutas, Miriam Robbins Dexter (Editor)

The Living Goddesses crowns a lifetime of innovative, influential work by one of the twentieth-century's most remarkable scholars. Marija Gimbutas wrote and taught with rare clarity in her original―and originally shocking―interpretation of prehistoric European civilization. Gimbutas flew in the face of contemporary archaeology when she reconstructed goddess-centered cultures that predated historic patriarchal cultures by many thousands of years.

This volume, which was close to completion at the time of her death, contains the distillation of her studies, combined with new discoveries, insights, and analysis. Editor Miriam Robbins Dexter has added introductory and concluding remarks, summaries, and annotations. The first part of the book is an accessible, beautifully illustrated summation of all Gimbutas's earlier work on "Old European" religion, together with her ideas on the roles of males and females in ancient matrilineal cultures. The second part of the book brings her knowledge to bear on what we know of the goddesses today―those who, in many places and in many forms, live on.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Feminism, Mythology, Religion, Goddess, Spirituality

286 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Marija (Alseikaite) Gimbutas (Lithuanian: Marija Gimbutienė), was a Lithuanian-American archeologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of "Old Europe", a term she introduced. Her works published between 1946 and 1971 introduced new views by combining traditional spadework with linguistics and mythological interpretation, but earned a mixed reception by other professionals.

Reviews

[Wendilyn Emrys, M.A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although some reactionary reviewers would like the general public to believe that the late Marija Gimbutas, Ph.D. was a beyond-the-fringe scholar, one only has to look at the list of illustrious scholars who chose to write for the earlier Anthology celebrating her life's work to see that such a view is an insult to this extremely capable, gifted, and intelligent archaeologist and scholar. Marija Gimbutas was just ahead of her time and in conflict with the predominantly male powers that be within the within the walls of academia. Miriam Robbins Dexter, Ph.D.; Riane Eisler, J.D.; James Harrod, Ph.D.; Carol P. Christ; Martin Huld; and Michael Dames to name just a few contributed to the Anthology volume honouring Marija's work. Kees Bolle, Ph.D. and Joseph Campbell can be numbered among Marija's admirers as well. Some reactionaries would like you to think that Marija stood alone and foolish in her ideas. However, time will tell and it seems that time and science are on Marija's side.

For those of you who have not had the privilege of an academic career or who are just starting out at University, you might not know that there are fads and fashions in academia just as there are fads and fashions in the other aspects of our lives. When I was an undergraduate, the History Dept. at my University was pretty much run by Marxist Historians. They groomed their students with their favorite concepts and practices and a generation of Marxist Historians was popped out. A few rebelled (some became reactionary, some revolutionary, and some just tried to be objective) and thus, twenty years down the line you have a change in fad and fashion and new schools of thought and modes of methodology take over in the halls of upper learning.

The same thing happens in all realms of study -- remember, all of these examinations and explanations are THEORIES! Even Marija's are theories; however, it is up the individual READER to determine which theory is logical and probable and to make their own choices. Do not surrender to the view of some self appointed arbiter of academia to tell you what is or is not of value.

Now remember, there are fads and fashions in academia. Marija's mode of theory arose from her life experiences (and just to find out a bit about the adventures of this extraordinary woman's extraordinary life is one reason to purchase "Living Goddesses") and the time in which she taught. Marija began teaching in the time of freedom and exploration that arose after W.W.II and in the Sixties. She continued teaching through the Seventies, Eighties and early Nineties. Many of her critics, however, are the academic products of the reactionary Reagan Era. Marija was not an ill taught or unaccredited scholar. She published twenty books and more than two hundred articles in various languages and taught at the best schools on this planet. She worked on many of the important archaeological digs of this century in many countries. She brought a new and fresh vision to the interpretation of data (which up until her time was nearly always interpreted by male scholars -- we see the world though our upbringing and this DOES matter in how scholars interpret their data). Marija Gimbutas, although she would have blushed at the praise, was a visionary genius.

I say this, even though I do not agree with all of her findings. However, there is enough in her theories to be of great interest and to make you comprehend the History of Western Civilization in a new way. A lot of what Marija theorizes makes incredible sense.

So, I say to you -- take a gamble and decide for yourself. I find that this is an extraordinary volume of work. Miriam Robbins Dexter, Ph.D. has done a wonderful job of condensing and clarifying Marija's life work into this very accessible volume. I think that everyone can get a good grasp of what Marija's theories were, and they are a refreshing breath of crisp clean air, after the thick, mind numbing fog that we have sometimes had to deal with in the halls of academia. Scholarship is supposed to foster new ideas and ways of looking at the world. It is awful to say that I do not think that this is always the case in our society. We are a society that still overvalues conformity. However, would you have your PC at the ready or be surfing the Internet if the conformists had had their way? I think not.

"Living Goddesses" is the final, fittingly comprehensive and approachable volume of Marija's life work. Miriam Robbins Dexter, Ph.D. has done a fantastic job of editing and finalizing the volume which must have been a Herculean task since the author was deceased. It is a gift to the minds of the world who explore, and wish to evaluate learning for themselves. It is a gift to the creative and visionary among us. I thank Marija Gimbutas, wherever she is, for gifting us with her knowledge, insight, and creativity. I also thank Miriam Robbins Dexter, Ph.D., for a wonderful job of tying everything together in an entertaining and enlightening manner. I highly recommend that you purchase a copy of this book and decide its merits for yourself.

[ActionScientist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unlike many books containing the word "Goddess" in their title, this book is not at all esoteric, but rather a scholarly archeological study. Vital in understanding that spiritual symbols existed many tens of thousands of years before the bible was written.

I am fully in favour of exploring and applying the mythic dimension. Ms. Gimbutas collaborated with Joseph Campbell.

[Iset · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got a strong sense of déjà vu whilst reading The Living Goddesses. It reminded me of another book I’ve recently read; The Great Goddess by Jean Markale. And indeed, both books have the same objective – to prove that there was a Palaeolithic goddess that spread across the world and was revered and mutated in various cultures until finally being displaced by patriarchal gods. Both books are divided into chronological sections where they discuss signs of goddesses in various societies over time, starting in the stone age, going to bronze age Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Minoans and the Mycenaeans, the classical Greeks and Romans, finally winding up in the Celtic and Viking worlds. With all due apologies to the late Jean Markale and the late Marija Gimbutas, it felt like I was reading the same book. And whilst I agree that there were earlier pantheons that were later replaced, I remain sceptical about the inferences of belief in the stone age (there just isn’t enough definitive information about the intention behind and use of the Venus figurines), and the more extreme claims like all subsequent ancient cultures with goddesses were worshipping the exact same goddess. In both books I would have preferred stronger referencing and evidence to support the case.

7 out of 10

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gimbutas' posthumous collection is another in a long-line of sober archaeological reflections on Old European religion. If you know Gimbutas, or can read the title, you'll know that her main thesis was that Old European, that is, pre-patriarchal Indo-European invasions, religion was based in long-held shamany fertility religions centered around a pantheon of crossover goddesses who held sway over agriculture, sex, and procreation. It's just the sort of thing that would be controversial, but her interpretations are hard to argue with if at least for the lack of any contrary evidence.
The bits on post-Christian holdovers are the best thing here, sadly brief.

[Francesca · Rating 4 out of 5]

4-4.5/5

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enlightening look at pre Indo-European (called Old European) cultures and the myths and symbolism that underlies much of today's religious, cultural and mythological belief systems, based on archeological finds.

[Ron Peters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Over the past year, I read some books on the late paleolithic and early neolithic periods, e.g., about Magdalenian cave art and the excavations of Çatalhöyük and Göbekli Tepe. Marija Gimbutas’ name came up.

Following an approach she calls archaeomythology, Gimbutas postulates a late paleolithic and neolithic culture of Old Europe: a feminine world of goddesses that venerates the natural cycle of birth-death-rebirth. Matriarchal, with advanced agriculture and art, living in permanent settlements, peaceful, egalitarian, non-hierarchical. This was over-run by the Kurgan culture rising out of the Russian steppes: masculine, patriarchal, pastoral, seminomadic, on horseback, militaristic, violent, and hierarchical, bringing their male high gods in tow. This formed the basis for modern, Western civilization.

Gimbutas’ work is interesting and valuable for forming theories and hypotheses to test concerning prehistoric Western and near-Eastern culture and its worldviews. She provides some evidence, but a great deal of her work involves offering “just so” interpretations: bulls and penises become feminine symbols as required, and, whereas an oval grave clearly represents an egg (fertility) or womb, a rectangular one strongly suggests the uterine passage. And so on.

Her work is like that of Joseph Campbell on comparative mythology and comparative religion, with a larger side-helping of archaeology. The world needs interpreters and speculators as well as hard-nosed empirical types, and I enjoy the work of both Gimbutas and Campbell. They provide useful mental stimulation. I suspend judgment on whether they provide much proof.

[Michael Bafford · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been interested in the Great Goddess – and all her permutations – since early in college when a professor introduced me to Robert Graves’s The White Goddess; a book he characterized as “one of those odd books which poets sometimes write”.

Since then I have poked around in various less “intuitive” sources for information. The penultimate work was Karin Bojs Europas mödrar. I had previously read her Min europeiska familj;: de senaste 54 000 åren. [translated as: My European Family: The First 54,000 years]. Ms Bojs uses DNA research to refine our knowledge of prehistory and has discovered, among many other things, that Ms Gimbutas was right in nearly all of her conclusions – particularly about the invasions of the Indo-Europeans and how their culture, and language, came to overlay and absorb an older, less violent, female-centric culture which was matrilineal and worshiped goddesses, mostly.

I decided to go to the source and see. This book was not as easy to read as Ms Bojs books. Much of it is a catalog of different artifacts found at different sites across Europe. And there are a lot of artifacts covering a very long stretch of time.

Ms Gimbutas’ interpretations av some objects seem to me to be somewhat far-fetched. It is clear that even though a first-rate scientist she had an agenda. In the interpretation of objects she always comes down on the side of the goddess. Then again she has great experience and was defending her hypothesis.

The first half of this book contains many pictures of artifacts, mostly of statues and pottery, with a few building plans and reconstruction drawings. The latter half contains only text, more’s the pity. Quite often, in the notes, Ms Gimbutas refers the reader to illustrations in other books written by others, or by herself. I have no experience of these books and little with ancient artifacts, although I have seen the Gundestrup cauldron, which at the time – 20 years ago… or so – was mostly confusing to me. We have kurgans here in southern Sweden, though they more often make me think of “barrow downs” than of mounted East European invaders.

I have been to Thera and Crete and gazed at the “restored” Knossos and the bull leapers not knowing then that this was a last bastion of what Ms Gimbutas calls “Old Europe” where people spoke a non Indo-European language and worshiped mainly goddesses.

The final chapters of this book, detailing the goddesses in historic cultures, was a nice change as it reviewed some things of which I had heard. At the same time it was not as magical as reading about rituals that have followed us down from the paleolithic. Few of these have survived, naturally. In the Baltic countries though, some rituals from at least the neolithic were still practiced at the beginning of the twentieth century.

A few quotations:
“The upheavals that followed the Indo-European infiltrations into Europe from 4300 to 2900 B.C. transformed different regions at different times and to differing degrees; a few areas were left relatively unaffected. One such region is the Aegean area to the south and east of mainland Greece. The Aegean civilization consisted of many small islands in the Aegean Sea, including the Cycladic archipelago and the small island of Thera. It also included the large island of Crete south of the Aegean in the Mediterranean Sea. Here Old European and Anatolian religion and social structure remained strong, as evidenced in art, poetry, architecture, and burial customs.” p. 131.
Anatolia is the Turkish peninsula.

“It is important to remember that the Minoans flourished for some two thousand years after most Old European cultures in east-central Europe had disintegrated through contact with Indo-European cultures.” p. 132
Prehistory is long.

“Additional ritual burial evidence came to light during excavations of another Lengyel roundel, built at Friebritz in eastern Austria 10.5 kilometers southeast of Laa an der Thaya. The two concentric ditches, 140 meters in diameter, yielded a highly unusual burial. In the very center of the rondel, where its four cardinal directions intersect excavators found two skeletons of of a man twenty to thirty years old and one of a woman about twenty years old. They rested stomach-down, one above the other, with the female skeleton on top. Several trapeze-shaped flint arrowheads lay at the shoulders of both skeletons (Neugebauer 1986)”. p. 102.
One of many curious puzzles found in the book. What on Earth were they thinking?

In the chapter on The Baltic Religion
“Birth rituals at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century included offerings to Laima. In Latvia, the the birth ritual, in which only women participated, was called pirtiẑas from pirtis meaning ‘sauna,’ since it took place in the sauna. The grandmother presided over the ritual, which included bathing before the birth and a feast immediately after the birth. The ritual included the sacrifice of a hen or a sheep and presentation of towels, belts, or other woven materials to Laima. Records from the end of the seventeenth century indicate that the hen was killed with a wooden ladle. This certainly must be a very ancient custom. It evokes the beautifully decorated Neolithic wooden ladles carved tine the shape of water fowl, usually a duck or goose, often found in peat-bog sites.” p. 200
Another curious custom that raises the question; how do you kill a hen with a wooden ladle? It cannot have been easy.

This edition is a big book, 25,5x18 cm. The font size does not reflect this. It was an unfinished manuscript at the time of Ms Gimbutas’ death and has been put together with a list of illustrations, 14 pages of notes, a glossary, a selected bibliography (which seems pretty complete to me) and an index. The editor Miriam Robbins Dexter deserves thanks.
From the glossary:
“kurgan a mound, barrow, or tumulus; in Marija Gimbutas’ context, this term designates the round barrows of the patriarchal pastoralists of the steppe area of southern Russia, whom she identified with the Proto-Indo-Europeans.
roundel an ancient circular enclosure that probably marked a ritual area.” pp. 232, 233

[Linda Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

All my secret beliefs are revealed as close to the truth in Gimbutas's work. As more collaborative archeological evidence is uncovered (okay - so is the bejeweled, crowned, weaponed woman found under the Forum last year in Rome REALLY some chieftain's wife?) Gimbutas will be revered rather than reviled.

Question: all the little bird houses found in one particular dig; purpose "unknown" - if the culture worshipped the bird goddess, doesn't it seem reasonable the people built little houses for the birds in the 'hood? Huh?

[Jenny Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readable, and interesting. I don't know much about Neolithic cultures, and this also provided a more nuanced introduction into them as well. Gimbutas's work is controversial (not everyone agrees with her interpretations of the archeological evidence she describes), but her arguments here are fairly convincing.

[Araminta Matthews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gimbutas is my new favorite archaeologist meets folklorist. I could read her all day.

[Nathan Ridings · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m giving this book 4 stars only because I believe the passing of the author and subsequent completion by an editor left a few parts disjointed and I wish more effort would have been made to find reference photos in the second half of the book despite them not being in the author’s notes yet.

With that out of the way, this is a very informative book on goddess influences of Old European pagan cultures. It is apparent that Marija was very knowledgeable on the archeology and mythology of the era. Marija provides scholarly insight but it’s apparent this is a personal topic. I enjoy that this book was not some work of neopaganism. I definitely recommend this to those reconnecting to ancient European paganism in any of its myriad of forms. I found Marija’s distinction between the more patriarchal Indo-European Gods and Goddesses vs Old European Gods and Goddesses quite interesting and informative.

[Sandrine · Rating 4 out of 5]

With each reference read I follow my search down the millenias, I truly wonder how we have lost the essential worship to all that is in and around ourselves and its connection. The wonder that is the cycle of life and the veneration to those that make it, guard it, preserve it and ultimately wake over its ending as well.
I am counting myself in those that have lost this connection but am trying to awaken that chthonic memory as the energies are present just need to harness the goodness of them.

[Lou T. Cosner]

Il tema e i concetti sono bellissimi e super interessanti. Ma che faticaccia per leggerlo! Non so se perché Gimbutas non ha avuto modo di rifinirlo (è morta poco dopo la prima stesura; e io non ho letto niente altro di suo). Oppure è perché mi sono dovuta leggere 60 pagine al giorno, tutto di fretta. Insomma, non posso dire che sia stata una lettura piacevole. Però sicuramente ne esco arricchita, che è una buona cosa.

[Ta · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the book purely to acquainten myself with the theories of Marija Gimbutas and was disappointed. Lack of citations in a lot of places, as the editor warned, no illustrations starting from first third of the book and in general the Gimbutas sketches out her ideas, but other than repeating same arguments there is not much to validate her theories.

Perhaps her books had better, more thorough work, but this one was rather underwhelming.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would actually rate this 4 or 4.5 if I could because it is a little on the dry side. It's also possible that it seemed that way to me because I've read some of Gimbutas' earlier work. However, I gave this a 5 to counter the 1 star review. Yeah, reviews are just opinions, but that reviewer couldn't even get the author's name right!

[Anna SP · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy buena revisión de las Diosas preindoeuropeas, como fueron alteradas, sus símbolos, animales, los templos de varias culturas matrísticas. Es el último libro de Gimbutas y merece cada palabra.
Mucha información de Malta, Creta.
Profundiza en religión minoica, griega, etrusca, vasca, celta, germánica y báltica.

[Theodora Zourkas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detailed and well researched. I liked the structure - the first section covered prepatriarchal religion focussing particularly on archeological evidence and illustrations. The second section covered goddesses across a chronology of religions from Minoan to the Baltic region. I found this section particularly interesting and provides a good basis for further research.

[NormaCenva · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely amazing book! The depth of the discoveries, the research... amazing!

[Marianne Moresco · Rating 4 out of 5]

So interesting, Gimbutas is a must

[Regina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had some nice material and descriptive drawings. The writing was a bit redundant.

[Tao · Rating 5 out of 5]

"During the sixth millennium B.C., the Old Europeans developed a writing system; like many other Old European achievements, writing grew out of religions symbols and signs."

"Humans have been communicating by means of symbols for a very long time. Abstract signs emerge in the Lower Paleolithic Acheulian and Mousterian periods (from circa 300,000 to 100,000 B.C.), long before the appearance of the extraordinary Upper Paleolithic art (from circa 35,000 to 10,000 B.C.). The familiar Upper Paleolithic images depict exquisite animals painted or etched on cave walls. They were also carved on bone or stone tools and made into figurines. But very few people notice the manifold abstract signs that often accompany the animals. These marks include V's, Y's, M's, P's, dots, eggs, seeds "arrows" ([image), two, three, or more lines, branching configurations, and squares divided into four or more sections. Some of the abstract signs known from the Acheulian era, such as V, M, and parallel lines (engraved on the rib from Pech de L'Aze, France, circa 300,000 B.C.: Fig. 36), continued through the Middle Paleolithic, Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic periods."

[Margot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gimbutas gives some interesting insights into Neolithic religion in Europe. It is quite believable more because I like the belief system then because she has convinced me that her theories are accurate. She draws from all of Neolithic European art and claims that the same symbolic references mean the same in almost every case. Knowing that there were a large variety of cultural differences between the populations of various areas leads me to question that the goddess symbolism could mean the same in each place. She does demonstrate that there were architectural styles that were consistent in both the British Isles and other parts of Europe which could mean that there were groups that communicated and traded ideas. Only, I don't have access to her vast amount of research to base my thinking on so I only seem to generate more questions rather than accepting her answers.

[Angharad · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Living Goddesses made me cry and completely changed the way I saw my own religion and beliefs. Confronted with the Paleolithic roots of my already ancient goddesses, my understanding of my faith was utterly morphed into something entirely different. Marija Gimbutas put her heart and soul into writing this book, it was radiantly evident on every page, in every illustration. This is not a Neopagan, New Age, "witchy" book. This is scholarly, written with the ambition to prove that the many goddesses of diverse European pantheons are actually aspects of a very ancient One Goddess. This book all but convinced me on the matter, and transformed the way I think, pray, and talk about my gods and goddesses.

[Zjay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edited into shape after she passed away.
Part I Looks at evidence for religion in a matriarchal society, mostly from images, tombs, gathering places and henges, etc. during neolithic times.
Part II (less well documented) examines religion of Minoan, Etruscan, Basque, Celtic, Baltic, and Germanic cultures.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good archeological depiction of matrilineal societies. This was my second reading of the book and it gets better each time. First read it in 2011.

[Edgar Olegario R.P.]

Archaeology - Neolithic and Cooper Age culture